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Wednesday, 2 October 2013

POLICE CHIEF 'SORRY' FOR GUN THREAT

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Swaziland
Editors’ Forum (SFE) jointly met with Swazi national police commissioner Isaac
Magagula to make a formal complaint after a policeman pointed a gun at a newspaper
photographer and demanded he delete pictures of police beating up unarmed
protesters.

According to MISA, Magagula ‘unreservedly’ apologised to
the ‘whole journalism fraternity’ in the kingdom.

The complaint came after Walter Dlamini, a Times of Swaziland photojournalist, had
a police gun pointed at him in the southern Swazi town of Gege, where he was
covering a protest about the result of last month’s national election.

Dlamini and his colleague Mduduzi Magagula refused and the
policeman pulled his gun away from Dlamini. Later photographs appeared in the Times of the incident. One was
captioned, ‘A plain clothes police officer taking out a revolver and charges at
the photographer while his colleagues beat up a man.’

MISA said in a statement, ‘Dlamini told MISA-Swaziland
the protestors were not armed. He said they were peacefully trying to deliver a
petition to their local leader when the police gave them 10 seconds to leave or
else they would fire tear gas. The protesters didn’t leave after the ten-second
window and the tear gas came, as well as beatings.’

Dlamini told MISA, ‘It wasn’t necessary for the police to
beat the protestors. I saw nothing wrong with the protestors.’

Phakama Shili, advocacy officer at MISA-Swaziland, said
the ‘inhumane’ squashing of protest and threats against the media ‘should be
condemned in the strongest possible terms’.

‘Journalism is becoming a dangerous profession in a
country that projects itself as peaceful to the outside world,’ said Shili.

‘If there’s no action taken, journalists may end up being
killed. The situation requires urgent attention.’

MISA in its statement reported Police Commissioner Magagula
saying, ‘It would also help if the journalists carry their press cards or wear
vests written “press” for identification purposes when covering riots.’

MISA did not report if any disciplinary action would be
taken against the policeman.